


Absolution

by Beth_Mac



Category: Nation - Terry Pratchett
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Family Feels, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-06 05:09:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20285920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Mac/pseuds/Beth_Mac
Summary: "This... is the place where you might grant God absolution."In which Daphne's father sees the path in the stars.Cross-posted from Fanfiction.net. Original post date: November 10, 2013.





	Absolution

**Author's Note:**

> So I, being a capricious person, decided to start cross-posting some of my old stuff to AO3. Enjoy.

Daphne's father sat on the beach of Nation. His daughter was tending to a new arrival at the Women's Place, and Mau stood a few yards away, standing guard against the night. The man was staring up into the stars, still marveling at the changed constellations, so different from those in the Northern Hemisphere, those in England.

Daphne…

She hadn't seen him watching her, that night at the top of the stairs. She hadn't seen him staring past her at the two coffins. His beloved wife, and their newborn son, lost before their time.

She was so much tinier in death than she had seemed in life…

"The stars are bright tonight," Mau said, never moving his eyes from the horizon.

He started; he'd forgotten Mau was there. But he followed Mau's gaze up into the night, and saw what Mau saw: the path of stars to Heaven, the path the perfect took.

The newly-crowned king smiled faintly, contentedly, to himself. Perhaps that was the path his infant son had taken, too young and too new to the world to have sinned. Perhaps that was the path his wife had taken, too generous and too gracious to dream of evil.

Perhaps they were watching from Heaven now.

Far off into the sea, a dolphin leaped.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been going on six years, so I don't really remember, but I think this fic was written entirely on a whim, probably in a single day. 
> 
> Original version: [Here](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9837347/1/Absolution). 
> 
> You'll notice that this fic doesn't have a song to accompany it; while I've been titling my creative writing after songs for as long as I've _been_ writing, I stopped doing it during my Fanfiction.net days, then restarted when I switched to AO3. So here, have a song that appears in another Pratchett work, _I Shall Wear Midnight_: "[Shaking of the Sheets](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I16WqxSMCu0)," by Steeleye Span.


End file.
